John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

In his statement, the Minister admits that excluding the impact of the receipts that cannot be explained by underlying economic conditions, which he estimates are at about €12 billion, we would have an underlying deficit of €1.8 billion projected for this year and accepts that this is "a better metric for assessing the resilience of our public finances". Would the Minister agree that it would be better, when we are publishing the public finances and the state of them on a regular basis – monthly, quarterly or whatever – to factor in what he said there? When we publish the receipts, it creates an enormous expectation in the public that this is money that is available for spending. However, this sounds like a realistic note that says when we factor that out, we are in deficit to the tune of close to €2 billion and this is a better metric for measuring it. That way, on the one hand, we raise expectations and, on the other, we are talking about a realistic assessment of the economy. In addition, the Minister talked about the indebtedness. We are at €224 billion. There is still a substantial debt to pay.